


Who the Hell is Bucky

by bmw4fh1017



Series: After the Winter Soldier [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 03:09:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20075137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmw4fh1017/pseuds/bmw4fh1017
Summary: Peter tries to juggle doing homework and babysitting his cousin at the same time.





	Who the Hell is Bucky

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to apologize ahead of time for all the obscure references to the MCU timeline.  
Hopefully all will be explained by the end. If I missed something you can point it out and I'll make edits as needed.
> 
> This was one of my favorites to write so I hope you enjoy it! :D

June 2020

  
“Just so we make it clear—"

“He knows, Stevie!” Bucky was dragging Steve out the door at this point, “We’ve been over this several times today and this isn’t even their first time alone! Can we leave now? It’ll be easier once we just close the door.”

“But…” Steve tried to argue.

“Everything will be fine, Uncle Steve,” Peter chimed in, “I’ve got this.”

“I guess we’re good,” Steve surrendered, “Okay. Bye you two. See you in a few hours.” Steve blew a kiss to Tessa while Peter used her baby hand to wave goodbye.

“Bye, Daddy! Bye, Daddy!” Peter said for Tessa.

“Peter, don’t forget about her nap,” Bucky added as he closed the door, “Tessa, make sure he doesn’t get any webs on the couch this time. Those were not fun to clean up.”

Peter laughed and let down Tessa. He followed her as she crawled to the living room where her stuffed Captain America bear had been discarded.

“Wanna sit on the couch with me, Tessy? Wanna feel like a big girl?”

She looked up at Peter with wide, captivating eyes. He took that as a yes and plopped both her and her bear in the corner of the cushion.

“Okay, I’m just gonna go and grab my backpack. I’ll be right over there. Don’t do anything without me watching, understand?” Tessa responded by starting to tip over sideways. Peter pulled up the giggling girl back to a sitting position, doing his best to not panic.

He quickly rushed over to his school bag as Tessa sucked on the stuffed bear’s ear.

Peter settled on back on the couch with his history textbook and page of questions.

“God, look at these questions, Tessa!” he exclaimed, pulling Tessa over to his side, “’What is Captain America’s real name?’ C’mon! Finals are around the corner and we’re stuck learning this craaaa…shiiiiii… garbage! You could answer these questions!” He flipped open his textbook to the section on World War Two and showed Tessa a picture of an old Captain America recruitment poster, “You know who that is?”

“Dada!” Tessa announced, placing a spit covered palm over her dad’s face in the textbook.

“Hmm,” Peter though, looking at his homework, “I don’t think my teacher will accept that as my answer, Tessy. Maybe for question ten,” he quickly scribbled dad next to ‘Who changed the face of the weapons industry in the late 20th/early 21st centuries?’, “but not about Captain America.” He wrote down Steve Rogers as his answer to question one. He placed his pencil eraser in his mouth, looked down at Tessa who was still smiling at the textbook-quality picture of her dad and squeezed the word Uncle at the beginning of his answer.

“Let’s see if question two is any better. K, Tess?” he nodded down at her and she copied his motion with wonderment in her eyes.

“Question two. ‘Who founded S.H.I.E.L.D.?’ Another easy one. Aunt Peggy. Question three. ‘Who was the best American mechanical engineer during World War 2?’ Grandpa. I mean, he did a ton after the war but the 40s were definitely the starting point. Don’t you think so, Tessa?”

She looked up at Peter with a blank expression for a few seconds before giggling.

“I thought so.”

He was considering whether to add Howard at the end of question three (he had referred to him as Grandpa Howard all his life but never actually got the chance to call him that) when Tessa slammed her palms on the text book and angrily exclaimed, “Dada!”

“Oh, you don’t think we’re not talking about your Dada enough?” Peter asked, “Okay… let me see. Oh, here we go. Question six ‘Who was the only member of the Howling Commandos to give his life in service of his country?’ I mean, this question was obviously written before 2014, but I think we get the gist.” Peter skipped a few pages ahead in his textbook to a picture of a young Bucky Barnes. He wore his Sergeant hat and a look innocence which barely matched with the hardened yet warm-hearted expressions he was used to from his uncle. After a second, he placed the textbook in front of Tessa to show her her other dad.

“Dada!” she squealed enthusiastically.

“Yeah,” he nodded, writing down Uncle James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes as the answer to number six.

He looked over and saw Tessa happily staring not at Bucky’s picture but at another picture of Steve. The caption said it was the last known picture of the Captain before he died. He decided that the textbook was really old.

“Well that’s your Dada, too,” Peter tried to point out young Sergeant Barnes but Tessa only ignored his claims and smiled fondly at Steve’s picture.

He grinned and pulled out his phone. He selected the first picture he could find of Bucky smiling and showed it to Tessa. She turned her attention to the glowing screen, she tried to grab at the picture, making Peter’s phone zoom in and out of Bucky’s smiling face, “Dada,” she said softly.

“Do you wanna see more of your Dadas?” Peter asked. He set down his homework on the coffee table and picked up the remote for the TV. He pulled Tessa closer to him and chose Netflix. The recent section showed a bunch of science and space documentaries which betrayed Bucky’s late-night bingeing habits.

Peter only needed to type C and A into the search section before he found an old Captain America documentary which had been made back when he was six. He vaguely remembered his dad acting rudely to a bunch of men with cameras and lights when asked about the Captain. They had already interviewed Aunt Peggy and was wondering if Tony had heard any stories from Howard. Tony had said no and barely had time to put his hand over Peter’s mouth before the kid could gleefully announce all he had heard about this mysterious Uncle Steve. Peter probably would have forgotten the incident, all this having happened less than a week before his dad had left for Afghanistan, if Tony hadn’t huffed about it when he discovered it on Netflix during their plane ride to Vienna four years prior.

Peter also knew that there was a sequel documenting Steve’s years as an avenger filmed few months after Thanos’s disappearance. That one hadn’t been released on Netflix yet but the first would suffice for the purpose of showing Tessa early known footage of her dads.

Peter, who had seen this documentary in history class pretty much every year since starting middle school, settled into the couch as Tessa wrapped her tiny hand around his finger. He let the soothing voice of the narrator (who had also narrated the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian) and the background patriotic melodies practically lull him to sleep. He kept looking over to check on Tessa who seemed captivated by the whole thing.

Probably just the TV in general was amazing to her. Her dads weren’t too crazy on letting her watch children’s TV shows. They both agreed that they were stupid, ridiculous and a good way to brainwash your child— and everyone knows neither of them have a positive opinion on brainwashing. So Tessa was shown books with colorful pictures and taken out in nature and maybe shown one or two space documentaries— not that Steve needed to know that last one.

Tessa certainly recognized her dad before his dose of super serum. Discovered as she muttered, “Dada” when clips were shown of Steve during basic training. And Peter couldn’t help but smile when she excitedly giggled and kicked her legs when a fully-grown Steve smiled and saluted at the camera.

He barely registered the narrator saying, “…best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseparable on both school yard and battle field.”

The visuals at this point were an old black and white promotional video from the war. A smiling and happy Steve Rogers was standing next to a laughing Bucky Barnes.

“Look, Tessa,” Peter said, pointing to the TV as Steve lovingly put his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. He looked down at Tessa in time to see her face scrunch up before letting out an ear-splitting wail.

Tears quickly followed with Peter scrambling to pause the TV before picking up Tessa. His phone clattered to the ground as he stood up, but he hardly cared as he thought back to how his uncles would handle this situation. He settled with gently bouncing her, stroking her hair and soothingly shushing her.

Peter continuously checked the time, hoping Tessa would calm down so no one would walk in on the baby having a meltdown. Steve would never leave him alone with her after that. Thankfully, Steve and Bucky weren’t scheduled to return to the apartment for another hour.

It only took a quarter of that time before Tessa quieted down and started to nod off on his shoulder. Deciding it was time for that nap Bucky had mentioned earlier, Peter slowly made his way to her crib and put her down. He backed out of the bedroom and sighed once he returned back to the couch.

He collapsed into the cushions to take a breath or two before picking up his phone from the floor. He turned it on and was greeted by the picture of Bucky he had shown Tessa. It was the happiest he had ever seen his uncle. The picture was almost a year old, Peter realized. Confirmed when he zoomed out and saw Bucky holding a bundle of blankets which contained a newborn Tessa. That had been the picture Steve had sent out to all their friends announcing the adoption was official and Tessa was now a part of their family. Tony had compared Bucky’s expression of pure joy to what he felt the first time he held Peter. Peter’s face turned red at the memory.

Trying to forget that memory, he looked up at the TV screen. It had dimmed a little but you could still see how happy and young and innocent the smiling men on the screen were. Sure, World War Two was horrible, but what the two men had been through since was worse. They now looked like they each had been through enough horror for two lifetimes— which was hardly fiction. Even when they smiled, they looked tired, like they could sleep forever and never be fully rested.

Bucky more than Steve, Peter decided. He hardly recognized the man accompanying Captain America on the TV and wouldn’t believe it was his own uncle if he hadn’t been raised with the knowledge.

Peter’s heart broke as he remembered the sleeping girl in the next room. One who had yet to learn that her dads were once happy and what they both had to endure on the road to finding each other and acquiring her.

Less than 45 minutes later, Peter wrote down Spider-man next to question 25 ‘Who is the strongest Avenger?’ when he heard the door open.

He looked up as his uncles entered the apartment, “Hey,” he said.

“She asleep?” Steve asked. Peter nodded.

“You get her, I’ll check the couch for webs,” Bucky instructed.

“So I learned something interesting today,” Peter said as Bucky bent down to check under the couch.

“Really?” Bucky scoffed kneeling to check between the cushions, “With that textbook? I’m pretty sure it’s older than me.”

Peter laughed, “Not in that.”

Bucky was about to ask more but was stopped when Steve settled Tessa on the couch right in front of him.

“Thanks for watching her, Pete,” Steve said affectionately, walking around the couch to hug him.

“Oh, it’s no problem,” he assured.

The second he touched Steve he heard the same wail from before. He jumped back as Steve gently pushed him away.

“It’s okay, Tessy,” he held up his hands to show her, “I’m alright, baby.”

Bucky kissed her head and pet her hair. She immediately calmed down.

“She doesn’t like it when either Bucky or I touch anyone,” Steve explained.

Peter nodded solemnly, remembering what had caused the tantrum earlier.

He was about to say as much to Steve but was interrupted by Tessa shrieking again. This time brightly as Bucky tossed her in the air playfully. Peter looked up at Steve, who was watching Bucky and Tessa, and saw a glimmer of the man he had seen in the documentary; a man standing beside his more-than-best friend with a look of love and hope in his eyes.

Peter smiled somberly and went to gather his school bag and homework.

He bid goodbye to his uncles and Tessa and headed to the door.

“Wait, Pete,” Bucky called out. Peter looked back and saw Bucky holding Tessa who had nestled herself in her father’s arms, “I thought you were gonna tell me what you learned.”

“It’s nothing,” Peter waved it off, and closed the door behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> For all those potentially confused, here are some notes to get the timeline and random facts straitened out.
> 
> 1\. Peter was born in 2002 (I think it says 2001 in the most recent Spider-man movie, but for the purpose of my universe he was born in 2002. Especially since I wrote this before even Captain Marvel came out) and would be a High School Senior in 2020.  
2\. Howard Stark describes himself as "the best mechanical engineer in this century" in the first Cap movie (speaking modestly, of course)  
3\. Peter was 6 in 2008. Meaning the filmmakers interviewed Tony right before the events of Iron Man (hence mentioning Afghanistan)  
4\. Even though Captain America: Civil War events didn't really happen, Tony and Peter still would've gone to Vienna to sign the Sokovia accords in 2016. On the way there would be when Tony and Peter found the documentary on Netflix.
> 
> And I'll add a number 5 in case I'm really bad at hinting stuff: Tessa didn't recognize pre-Winter Soldier Bucky and didn't like when he touched Steve. And Peter doesn't want to share the fact that Tessa only knows a "broken" form of Bucky because he feels like it would potentially ruin how happy Bucky is with her.
> 
> Hopefully I caught everything. If there's something I missed I'll go back and fix it if necessary.
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
